This application relates generally to the field of outdoor lawn equipment, and particularly to an apparatus configured for use in connection with lawn bags.
Paper lawn bags are ubiquitous but notoriously difficult to use. Lawn bags are typically configured with a relatively small opening yet are often tasked with receiving large quantities of lawn and garden debris at a time. When fully articulated into the open position, the bag is configured to stand freely on the ground to enable a consumer to load the bag with debris. During use, one or more of the sidewalls of the lawn bag tend to collapse under the weight of debris striking a perimeter edge of the opening or a sidewall near the opening, causing the opening of the bag to collapse inward. Lawn bags have a propensity to buckle or collapse during use because they are constructed primarily from one or more plies of paper formed into four, relatively long sidewalls. A collapsed opening tends to slow down the process of loading additional debris into the bag.
An exemplary lawn bag having model number 49022 is manufactured by Smurfit-Stone and is available at home centers around the country. It has a 30 gallon capacity when unfolded and articulated, is made of 2-ply wet-strength paper, and is about 16 inches deep, 12 inches wide, and 35 inches tall. A bag of this type has a buckling load of approximately 1.5 lbs, meaning, the area near and around the bag opening can receive a vertical force of approximately 1.5 lbs before one of the sidewalls of the bag collapses.
Given the relatively flimsy sidewalls and small resistance to buckling, it is often a challenge to avoid collapsing the opening of the ubiquitous paper lawn bag when loading the bag with debris. What is needed, therefore, is an apparatus that at least stabilizes the opening to permit easy and quick loading of lawn and garden debris into the bag.